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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — Replacing a star is always hard, no matter what level of sport an athlete is playing. 

That will be the challenge this season for the West Forsyth girls tennis team as it aims to replace Samantha McEachran, who graduated this past June. 

McEachran, the daughter of co-Head Coach Gordon McEachran, dominated the Central Piedmont 4-A conference the past four seasons. She was named conference player of the year last year after going undefeated in singles.  

“You really don’t (replace somebody like Samantha McEachran),” said co-Head Coach Jeff Rickert. “That’s a huge hole. We could count on her, and so without having her – we’re hoping these freshmen can improve quickly. 

“It’ll be very difficult to get that, I hate saying automatic win because it’s not an automatic win. Nothing’s ever automatic. But you could kind of count on Samantha getting a W in the singles.” 

Samantha McEachran was also a very good doubles player for the Titans. 

“It’s going to be tough,” Rickert said. “So, you know you just kind of hope each girl can improve from last year, but these freshmen are going to play key roles. So, we’ll see how they stack up. I’m interested to see how they play in competition, but, you know, we’ve got some good freshmen. So, we’re excited about that.  

“You don’t replace a Samantha. That’s not going to happen.” 

According to Rickert, West Forsyth has five freshmen – Celia Tonidandel, Chloe Whitley, Kaiya Yarrow, Savannah Bernas and Leona Brown – who will play key roles. Also, according to Rickert, it has sophomore Madeline Dusart, juniors Campbell Pitts, Lily Turek and Sundus Khan and senior Kathryn Phelps. 

Nothing is set in stone with either the singles or doubles lineup. 

“We have some ideas. I don’t want to give up and say 100 percent,” Rickert said. “But, yeah, we’re playing some matches amongst ourselves obviously trying to figure that all out. It’s starting to come together. So, yeah, we’re getting closer.” 

Leadership is in flux after the graduation of Samantha McEachran. 

“That’s going to be a good question,” Rickert said. “We don’t have a lot of, you know, vocal leaders. Everybody looked at Samantha last year just automatically. The year before, Vivian (Do) was the one that we looked to.” 

Rickert added that Phelps will be the senior captain. 

“So, yeah, we’ve got some quiet girls. You know, everybody’s real nice, but no one’s really kind of stepped up yet,” he said. “It’s early in the season, but we’ll see kind of what happens.” 

West Forsyth played its opening match on Aug. 13 at Greensboro Grimsley in a nonconference match. It played its first Central Piedmont 4-A match on Aug. 19 at Mount Tabor, and it played its first home match on Aug. 21 against Parkland in another conference match. It is scheduled to play conference matches next week at Glenn on Monday and at Reagan on Wednesday. 

“Davie (County) will definitely be the favorite,” Rickert said of the conference race. “And Reynolds will be good and Reagan will be good. Of course I have no clue what they’re bringing in as freshmen, and sometimes that’s a big thing. So, teams could drastically change. But just based off what I remember from last year, Reagan, Mount Tabor will be, you know, good. 

“But Reynolds and Reagan will be battling with Davie.” 

The final regular-season match is scheduled for Oct. 2 at home against East Forsyth. The conference tournament is scheduled for Oct. 8. The NCHSAA Class 4-A dual-team tournament is scheduled to begin Oct. 14 and the state championship is scheduled for Nov. 2. The NCHSAA Class 4-A individual tournament is scheduled with the regionals on Oct. 18-19, and the state-individual championship is scheduled Oct. 25-26. 

“(Davie is) solid,” Rickert said. “They’ve got a deep team and really good players 1-6. They’re definitely tough. They had some close matches I think with Reynolds last year. But yeah, they’re very deep and they’re very good up at the top of the lineup, and they’ll be really tough.” 

 

Roster:

Sundas Kahn

Campbell Pitts

Lilly Turek

Madeline Dusart

Katie Phelps

Celia Tonidandel

Kaiya Yarrow

Leona Brown

Savannah Bernas

Kinza Ali

Kara McLelland

Chole Whitley

 

Schedule:

8/13 – @ Grimsley, L 7-2

9/19 – @ Mount Tabor

8/26 – @ Glenn

8/28 – @ Reagan

8/29 – @ Atkins

9/3 – Davie

9/5 – R.J. Reynolds

9/11 – Mount Tabor

9/23 – Reagan

9/25 – @ Davie

9/30 – @ R.J. Reynolds

10/3 – Atkins

10/8 – Conference Tournament